The next morning I bid a reluctant farewell to the lovely flat and headed off to Munich, for real this time. I had screenshot directions from the train station to the new flat, a journey from the train station shat should have taken about 15 minutes. These directions, however, fail to include directions to the name of the specific exit. Anyone who has visited a large train station in any major city can testify that taking the wrong exit could spell disaster for navigation without GPS.
I found myself in that situation just before noon that day, with the added pressure of needing to arrive at my new flat by noon. The host offered to come let me in personally but needed to do so on her lunch break. When she asked what time I would arrive at the flat, I told her noon, far too optimistically. In the future, I hope to avoid all such pressurized navigations in foreign countries with unclear street signage, unclear to foreigners at least.
Using any free wifi I could find, I attempted to locate the appropriate exit as well as inform my host of my predicament. After almost half an hour, I finally found the tram going in the proper direction. I had no idea how to purchase a ticket after rushing on board before the tram departed. I saw ticket validators but when several more people hopped on and made no move towards the validators, I assumed I would be okay for the moment. Thankfully, no official got on to check. Otherwise, I would have had a significant fine assessed against me. I learned on my Dachau tour two days later that they do not accept the ignorance excuse. Pro tip: give yourself enough time to figure out the process of the local transportation system because googling ahead of time will not prepare you adequately.
Even once on the appropriate street, I had some difficulty finding the building which held the tiny flat. Thankfully, a nearby restaurant had wifi so I could alert the host to my proximity. After quickly showing me around, she rushed back to work. I rested briefly, gathering walking tour necessities before heading back out to grab lunch as I walked back towards the train station; the historical center lay on the other side of the station, stopping at a grocery store to grab food for lunch before beginning my tour in earnest.
I thought my directional difficulties had ended when I reached the flat. Little did I know that I would once again enter the bowels of the Munich train station in search of a map. Never before have I encountered such a confusing maze of train platforms, metro lines, and underground shopping centers, all with no store that carried helpful maps. Finally, after I exited to the street, I found a sidewalk vendor that had the map I sought, if I had cash. In a cruel twist, I did not have enough so back I delved into Munich’s underground labyrinth to find a cash point. By the time I walked away from the vendor, map in hand, I had spent over an hour on the map retrieval adventure.
While this map also contained walking directions for an old town tour. I soon discovered that the cartographer took a little artistic liberty which made for quick thinking while in Old Town. I followed this trail through the quaint, crowded streets, discovering my appalling lack of knowledge of German history. If the event did not form a keystone for a major European or worldwide movement, like Luther and his 95 Theses, I knew little to nothing about it.
This tour introduced me to a wide variety of German history from museums like the Stadtmuseum housed in the former municipal arsenal and stables, with artworks made of authentic cannonballs from some point in the city’s history, to the Asamkirche, a church originally built as a private chapel complete with the most ostentatious ornamentation I have ever seen in one location. These buildings crowded in on each other with each building plastered against another, old wedged between new, historic between modern, each landmark sparking a desire to learn more about German history.
The passage of time has blurred my memory of the day and my journal lacks any more concrete details to help revive the memories. I remember feeling relaxed and enjoying the easy pace even as I got an exercise in map interpretation and navigation skills with the product of creative cartography. I made it back to my starting point, Munich’s main train station, and beyond to the flat, to get some rest before the heavy but necessary WWII and Holocaust experiences coming up over the next two days.